Chances Are (26 page)

“Pretty good.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Definitely better than I felt the last few days.”

“Maybe that’s a good sign.”

She wasn’t sure if it was a sign of anything but wishful thinking, but she kept that thought to herself. One of them might as well hang on to hope. “I think I’m going to buy one of those home pregnancy tests this weekend. My dad and Maddy are going to Spring Lake on Saturday. I figure I’ll drive over to the mall near Bay Bridge where nobody knows me and pick one up after the graduating class’s interview.”

He reached for her hand and held it tight. “I’ll call in sick and go with you.”

“You promised Mrs. DiFalco you’d finish the carport this weekend.”

“So I’ll finish it Sunday.”

“I’ll be there and back in a half hour. Besides, I’ll be working at the inn on Saturday, too.”

She laced her fingers with his and let his warmth flow into her. Quiet came easily for them. It always had. They flowed from conversation to silence and back again as easily as breathing. She tried to imagine what this would be like with a boy who didn’t care about her, who didn’t love her the way Seth loved her, and the thought filled her with sadness.

“Did you know this is what happened to Maddy?”

He looked over at her. “I thought she was married to that gray-haired guy, and they split up.”

“They never married. She got pregnant, and he didn’t want to start over again with a family when he already had grandchildren, so they broke up.”

“Bastard.”

It wasn’t that simple. She had seen the way Maddy spoke about him, with friendship and affection. “Remember how he was when he came to the hospital to see Hannah? He might not have wanted her, but he loves her.”

“Then he should’ve stayed with them. You don’t walk out on your kid.”

“Maybe sometimes it’s the only thing you can do.” People wanted different things from life, at different times. You could love someone with your entire heart and soul and still not be able to make it all turn out all right in the end.

“Your father didn’t walk out on you.”

The statement brought her up short. “That was different. My mother died.”

“Some men might’ve walked just the same.”

A chill spiraled up her spine. “You wouldn’t.”
Would you?

“No,” he said, “and you wouldn’t either.”

She nodded, but she wasn’t so sure. Lately she had found herself wishing she could just disappear. She wanted to leap behind the wheel of her car and drive until she ran out of money or gas or highway, drive to someplace where they didn’t know her as the good girl, the perfect daughter, the model student, the one who never made mistakes, never said the wrong thing, never disappointed anyone, not even herself.

It was all coming at her so fast that she found it hard to arrange her thoughts into some kind of order. She had always known exactly where her life was headed, as if she had been born with a schedule hardwired into her brain that kept her on time and on track. Just a few more months, and she and Seth would be leaving for college, heading up to New York and Columbia and a whole wide world of experiences she could never enjoy in Paradise Point. Sometimes she looked at her old friends, at Aunt Claire, at her father, and felt like she was watching them from across a divide that grew wider every day.

They were happy with their lives. They liked it right there in the town where they’d been born, tending bar, raising families, having their hair styled at Upsweep or buying stationery at Le Papier or watching the tourists watching them from the front porch of The Candelight. Only Maddy had ever wanted something different. She had broken away from the pack when she was Kelly’s age and headed to Seattle, where she made a life for herself. A life she might still be living if Hannah hadn’t come along.

The thought made her uncomfortable. Hannah was an adorable little girl, funny and bright and dangerously perceptive, and in a few months she would be Kelly’s sister. Someone who would look up to her for advice and friendship. Strange to think that little Hannah had been the catalyst for such big changes in her mother’s life which, in turn, changed Kelly’s and Aidan’s lives as well.

But that was the way it happened, wasn’t it? Babies changed everything. Sit one down in the heart of a family, and the aftershocks could be felt for years.

As bad as things had been after the warehouse accident, that was how good they were now. Her father was happy, really happy, for the first time in Kelly’s life. The kind of happy that made people smile when he walked into the room. The kind of happy that would make it possible for Kelly to fling herself into her new life in September without feeling guilty and torn between her home and her future.

It was as if all the stars had finally slid into alignment just for her, and they were pointing her toward the path she had been working toward her whole life. She was so close she could reach out and touch it, grasp the stars and hold them in the palm of her hand.

As long as she wasn’t pregnant.

CLAIRE SPENT MOST of the day trying not to think about the fact that one morning she was going to wake up and discover that Corin Flynn was in town. He hadn’t been specific in his note to Olivia. All he had said was that he was en route. She told herself that it didn’t matter, that he had asked his sister to pass along the information as a courtesy, a social heads-up if you will, but that was a lie, and she knew it. There had never been anything casual between them. Right from the start they had both recognized the import of what was happening between them and where it might lead.

God, she didn’t want to think about him. She had trained herself not to think about him, to consign those memories to a dark corner of her heart, the place where old dreams were buried.

When push came to shove, she had chosen her flawed husband. Their imperfect marriage. Their wounded family, and the home they had built together. She had known exactly what she was doing and why, and if she had any regrets, she would take them to her grave.

She was wiping down the bar after the lunch rush when she saw Peter Lassiter and his crew walk in. A second later, Gina Barone came racing in, all laughter and smiles, and joined them. What the hell was that all about?

“I’ll do the bank run for you,” she said to Aidan, who was counting out the main register.

“No problem,” he said, not looking up from the count. “I’ll drop it off on my way to deliver the signed building permits to town hall.”

“I’ll do it,” she repeated as Lassiter acknowledged her stare with a pleasant nod of his head. He turned back to Gina and said something that made her sway toward him and toss her overprocessed hair. “Just give me the pouch, will you.”

“For Christ’s sake, Claire!” He pushed the stack away from him and reached for a bottle of water. “You made me lose count. Now I’ve got to start over.”

“I’ll do it.”

“What the hell’s the matter with you? You hate doing the bank.”

“I’ve gotta get out of here,” she said, aware of the rising note of hysteria in her voice.

“So go. Nobody’s stopping you.”

She liked a good brawl as much as the next person but not now. All she wanted was to escape.

“I owe you one,” she said as she grabbed her purse from the rack beneath the register. “I’ll be back after I pick up Billy.”

“Whatever.” He waved her off and resumed counting the half-day receipts.

She escaped into the kitchen and out the back door, almost knocking into poor Tommy, who was sitting on the top step.

“Sorry,” she said, rubbing his shoulder where the door banged into him. “I should’ve looked first.”

“Goddamn dangerous out here,” Tommy muttered. “Safer sitting inside a smoke-filled bar.”

Normally she would have offered up a wisecrack, some sarcastically funny comment meant as a combination apology and disclaimer, but all she could think about was putting as much distance between herself and O’Malley’s as possible. If she had needed further proof that it was time to move on, this was it. Her entire body vibrated with the need for change, for new possibilities, new challenges, not the navel-gazing into the past that Lassiter and his crew were looking for.

And what was Gina doing with them, she wondered as she climbed behind the wheel of her car and started the engine. The woman looked all buddy-buddy with Lassiter, who didn’t seem her type at all. Gina usually went for flashier men, guys with muscles and—

Now there was something she definitely didn’t want to think about. Gina and her taste in men could be summed up in one word: Billy.

No, that wasn’t something she wanted to think about at all. She had spent way too much time dwelling on that over the years, and all of that thinking had never brought her one step closer to understanding anything at all about the life she had shared with him.

She drove out to the lake and parked near the gazebo. A group of gray-haired model boat enthusiasts congregated near the shore while their radio-controlled schooners and cabin cruisers glided quietly along the still waters. Their laughter floated in through her open window and surrounded her, and she found herself choking back tears. She joked that her father had a better social life than she had, but there was nothing funny about it. Her family had been her entire world all these years, O’Malley’s her only social outlet. By choice and by necessity, she had let her world shrink around her until it became both jailer and protector.

Leaving O’Malley’s was the right thing to do.

So was taking David Fenelli up on his invitation.

She needed to prove to herself, and to anyone else who might be interested, anyone who might not have seen her in a long time, that the old Claire Meehan O’Malley had been replaced by—

Okay. So maybe she hadn’t worked out all the problems yet, but it was a start.

 
BESIDES THEIR BAD luck with men, DiFalco women were known for their high energy levels which, in most cases, translated into nonstop talking. Gina was a perfect example. Maddy and her cousin were the first to show up at the bus stop that afternoon. Gina had stopped off for a late lunch at O’Malley’s with the PBS crew, of all things, and so far she hadn’t stopped for breath in the retelling.

“. . . Lassiter is such a doll, and that Crystal—what a hoot! We’re going out together Saturday night. I promised to show her some of the best spots on the shore.”

“You and Crystal?” Maddy asked.

“Sure,” Gina said with a shrug. “Why not? She’s young, but I think she can keep up with me.”

“Does she know you like Barry Manilow?”

Gina grinned and gave Maddy a soft punch in the shoulder. “I’ll take her to the karaoke place near Wildwood. Her tattoos and piercings will fit right in.”

“Will you?”

“I fit in everywhere,” Gina said. “It’s all in the attitude.”

Gina talked. Maddy drifted. They had reached that accommodation years ago, and it still worked for them.

“I don’t believe it.” Gina nudged Maddy and tilted her head in the general direction of the post office. “So how long has that been going on?”

Maddy turned to look.

Then she looked again.

Claire and David Fenelli were deep in conversation near the bank of mailboxes. David downright glowed with pleasure as something he said was greeted with a loud whoop of laughter from Claire.

“I’ve never heard her laugh like that,” Maddy said. “Have you?”

It was a perfect straight line, a softball Gina would usually hit out of the park. “No,” she said, surprising Maddy. “Not for a very long time.”

“Isn’t David the one whose wife—”

“Yep,” said Gina. “She walked out and left him with three kids.”

Maddy whistled softly. “Do you think they’re dating?”

“You’re the one who’s almost an O’Malley. I was going to ask you.”

“I’d be the last one she confided in.”

They tried very hard not to stare, which meant that they couldn’t take their eyes off the pair. Maddy had planned to ask Claire if she wanted to check out Cuppa with her after the school bus arrived, but she couldn’t muster up the guts to walk over to where Claire and David were standing and insert herself into the conversation. Not too many months ago it had been Aidan and her laughing together on the corner while everyone watched and wondered.

Denise almost tripped over her baby’s stroller as she wheeled past Claire and David. “So what’s that all about?” she asked, gesturing toward the two—Maddy didn’t dare call them a couple—who were still acting like they had invented laughter.

“Five dollars if you go over there and ask them,” Gina said with a wink.

Pat didn’t know either. Or Fran. Or any of the other mothers who joined them.

“She’s been holding out on us,” Fran said.

“Fenelli?” Pat sounded dubious. “I thought he was still carrying a torch for his ex.”

“You’re way behind the times,” Vivi said. “He took Deby Bartok out to dinner twice last month.”

Gina’s jaw dropped. “He’s seeing Deby Bartok?”

“Not anymore,” Vivi said with a smug smile. “She said she still has some issues and maybe they could just be friends.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and all of her issues have to do with chocolate cake.”

“What good are you?” Denise said to Maddy. “She’s almost your sister-in-law. The least you could do is get the scoop for us.”

“You’re all a bunch of wimps.” Gina cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey! Are you too good for the likes of us?”

Claire said something to David, who nodded, and they joined the crowd at the corner.

“So what was so interesting you couldn’t be bothered with us?” Denise asked in a playful tone of voice that made Maddy cringe inwardly.

David didn’t bat an eyelash. “We’re planning to overthrow the board of ed and replace them with the cast of
Friends
.”

“They’re unemployed now,” Claire said with a straight face. “We figure they’d appreciate the work.”